During the current crisis in eastern Zaire, IRIN has
been receiving and distributing a prodigious volume
of information. IRIN has distributed about 40,000 copies
of its daily updates alone. Due to the volume, most
of the important documents we have received during
the period have been summarized or referred to in the
updates or weekly round ups.

However, we have archived documents and reports and
they are available on request (by phone, fax or e-mail).
Our automated document server, an experimental "self-service"
archive is searchable through e-mail. A brief example
is included at the end of this message. Many of these
documents are available on DHA's Relief.Web: http://www.reliefweb.net.

Miscellaneous documents (not distributed on IRINLIST
or IRINWIRE since 17 October 1996, and not in chronological
order):

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You should receive automatically a list of documents
that match this description, and the documents themselves
in separate messages. Full instructions are available
by sending a message to archive@dha.unon.org with
a one word message: HELP.

Possible problems:

You may get more documents than you intended to retrieve,
if the description contains many frequently used words
-- you may not get the document at all - if this happens,
try simplifying the description -- very long documents
will get trucated - and you will need to request them
from us directly -- descriptions with the # or / character
in them will give unpredictable results; "no results",
"a word is too common" are other error messages
you may encounter. Just drop us a line if you are having
trouble, and we will send the documents by hand.

IRIN will be happy to receive feedback on this service,
which is still in the pilot phase - and needs much
refinement - but we hope it will eventually contribute
to IRIN's range of services tailored to subscribers'
needs.

[ENDS]

[Via the UN DHA Integrated Regional Information Network.
The material contained in this communication may not
necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations
or its agencies. UN DHA IRIN Tel: +254 2 622123 Fax:
+254 2 622129 e-mail: irin@dha.unon.org for more information.
If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item,
please retain this credit and disclaimer.]